Villains Wiki

Hi. This is Thesecret1070. I am an admin of this site. Edit as much as you wish, but one little thing... If you are going to edit a lot, then make yourself a user and login. Other than that, enjoy Villains Wiki!!!

READ MORE

Villains Wiki
Advertisement

I believe many worlds will bow to Phyrexia. Mirrodin is merely the first.
~ Sheoldred

Sheoldred is the black aligned praetor of the Phyrexians and major antagonist for Magic: the Gathering. With the help of her faction known as the Steel Thanes, she hopes to exterminate all organic life on New Phyrexia(formerly Mirrodin) and remake this world into her version of perfection. Though she would ultimately fail in these efforts, she would continue to advance the will of Phyrexia by aiding Elesh Norn in her gambit to conquer the multiverse for a while before working with Urabrask to undermine her authority.

Description[]

While each of the seven Thanes has power among this faction of Phyrexians, Sheoldred is the Thane who currently holds the tenuous title of praetor. Her upper body is similar to a human female with two arms and a feminine face which she covers with a mask. She is known to be graceful in her appearance and mannerisms. The lower body in most of her art is that of a giant predator that is spider-like in appearance with a large, toothy mouth. Its arachnid appearance translates to its movements as well. Though this is how the lower body normally looks, Sheoldred can insert her torso into any artificial creature to control it as her own. In Dominaria United, Sheoldred used both a Phyrexian dreadnought(an enormous mechanical serpent like creature) and a dragon engine(a Phyrexianized mechanical dragon).

Sheoldred is an intelligent praetor and a master strategist. She is always aware of any situation with her legion of spies and assassins willing to do her bidding. While the other Thanes' main method of control is to enslave those who oppose them, Sheoldred on the other hand prefers a subtler method. She collects debts and manipulates others to aid her allies and crush her foes. She is called the Whispering One because she only speaks in whispers. There is evidence her whispers torment those who come in contact with her even from far away as seen with Skithiryx.

After the Dross Pits were created, Sheoldred created an arena for herself to watch the denizens of the plane slaughter each other. The winners of these conflicts can harvest the parts of the losers to use for themselves. Using the memories imprinted upon her by the glistening oil, Sheoldred runs her faction close to how Yawgmoth ruled Phyrexia.

History[]

After Yawgmoth's demise after his attempted invasion of Dominaria, all Phyrexians were either deactivated or destroyed. Even though the threat of the Phyrexians was neutralized, the instrument of their resurrection remained in the form of glistening oil contained within the artificial planeswalker Karn(ironically one of the beings necessary for Yawgmoth's downfall). After becoming a planeswalker, Karn traveled across the multiverse while unknowingly leaking the oil on each of the planes he visited. Though the impact the oil had on most of these planes is unknown, it easily corrupted Karn's self-made world of Argentum(eventually Mirrodin) and would transform it into New Phyrexia. This allowed the Phyrexians to be reborn except with the race aligned with all five colors of mana instead of just colorless and black mana. Though the Phyrexians as a collective had no foreseeable weaknesses, the unity they had was lost because of the different ideologies granted by each color. This resulted in a different faction arising for each color resulting in a leader rising for each faction known as a praetor. Sheoldred became the praetor to the black faction known as the Steel Thanes.

The Phyrexian invasion of Mirrodin began in the Mephidross, a dark swamp on the plane full of zombies(called the nim) and corrupted humans(called the moriok). Throughout the Mirrodin Block, the Phyrexians grew in size and power in this area until they were able to spread out. They managed to stay hidden thanks to Geth and now each of the Thanes have moved to different parts of the Mephidross. Each of the Thanes learned truths about their roles in the Plane. These truths are that Phyrexians are the only beings that can survive a Phyrexian world, there can be only one Father of Machines, Karn is not worthy to be Father of Machines, and the only way to achieve that title is to remove Karn for the throne.

Sheoldred and the other Thanes wage wars against one another with the goal of ultimate power. Once Sheoldred or another Thane becomes the new leader of the machines, the methods that Thane used to become ruler would become imitated by others. Knowing this, Sheoldred and the other Thanes have mastered the art of patience and striking only when the time is right. Sheoldred has an array of subjects at her command designed to create Phyrexians, spy on others, manipulate those who are none the wiser, control her slaves, erasing traces of her interference, and to spread information to her subjects. She believes that knowledge is power and has knowledge about numerous subjects and is a master strategist who knows how to use the information she collected as well as her enemies' ignorance against them. For most of the Scars of Mirrodin Block, she waits for her moment to strike and claim New Phyrexia for herself. She had a mostly neutral relationship with the other praetors. At worst, she had minor disagreements with Elesh Norn. She aided Elesh Norn, Jin-Gitaxias, and Vorinclex in the creation of the angel horror Atraxa.

She did manage to kill one of the other Thanes in the meantime. By sending her night-learners to spy on Roxith, the Thane of Rot, she learned he was trying to form alliances with other Thanes to usurp her and Karn. She decided to play with him by giving one of her astral coffers to Azax-Azog, the Demon Thane, and having him give it to Roxith while having the demon subtly reveal the words needed to properly access it and destroy her if he does. Once in Roxith's possessions, the night-learners invited the Thane to be in the presence of both Karn and herself. When the time came to use the coffer, he said the wrong words and was torn to pieces. Sheoldred knew that since he didn't understand their nature, she was not in danger. She planned on reconstructing Roxith so he could both serve the praetor and provide her amusement.

Cut A Deal

Sheoldred along with Jin-Gitaxias and Vorinclex pledging their loyalty to Elesh Norn

But, this stable unity changed when Karn escaped his corruption. The praetors and Thanes waged war against each other in the hopes that one would be the new leader of New Phyrexia. Sheoldred sent her forces to target Vorinclex and his faction, but Glissa countered her assault. Unfortunately for Sheoldred, Elesh Norn eradicated her forces and eviscerated her domain. Her last known appearance was when she, the other praetors, and Tezzeret went to New Phyrexia's core to crown Elesh Norn as the Mother of Machines. Sheoldred and many of the other Thanes pledged themselves and their sphere the Dross Pits (New Phyrexia's sixth sphere) to aid in Norn's grand vision. Despite now aiding Norn in her plans to compleat the multiverse, Sheoldred grew to despise her. Norn saw Sheoldred as a powerful rival so she sent her on missions to distract her.

On Dominaria[]

Sheoldred-the-Apocalypse

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

Sheoldred was transported to Dominaria to obtain or destroy all threats that could prevent New Phyrexia's dominance across the multiverse. These included the Golgothian Sylex, a bowl engraved with a spell that can cause great destruction, the Mana Rig, a powerful artifact that can generate powerstones and durable metal the Phyrexians could use, and Karn, the artificial planeswalker who was partially responsible for destroying old Phyrexia and was also the one who unintentionally allowed the Phyrexians to be revived on his artificial plane of Mirrodin. She was specifically tasked with bringing Karn back to New Phyrexia alive. Similar to the other praetors, the process of traveling through the Blind Eternities via the Planar Bridge vaporized her organic skin and left her unconscious. She was in charge of the New Phyrexian invasion of Dominaria with many other Phyrexians with her on the plane and sleeper agents having infiltrated all parts of every society. This was the largest interplanar operation orchestrated by the New Phyrexians at this point with enough of them on Dominaria to create a fierce army. Creating sleepers involved her minions kidnapping countless denizens from across the plane, having them compleated while looking like their normal selves, and sending them back to where they came from acting as they normally would. Once a specific signal is activated, the sleeper would reveal their compleated form and obey Sheoldred's whims.

In the Caves of Koilos, she recuperated with both halves of her body being cared for apart from each other after she was discovered by and with the help of Rona who tried to attach new organic components to her and the Society of Mishra, a group of Phyrexian sympathizers dwelling underneath the Tolarian Academies whom worship Mishra and Gix. Karn discovered Sheoldred and wanted to destroy her before the Phyrexians could start another invasion, but he was confronted by some members of the society and Rona. This allowed the Phyrexians to gather what they needed onto skyships and to escape. When Karn reached the Whispering One intending to place an explosive in her torso, she slightly regained consciousness which allowed Karn to partially read her mind where he discovered the entire plane was potentially compromised. She informed the golem she had plans for him and before he could finish her off, Rona used magic to prevent Karn from detonating his explosive allowing Sheoldred to split her body apart into many spider-like constructs to escape.

Sheoldred desired to dominate the plane as a means to succeed where the Phyrexians of old have failed. Though she didn't have to conquer the plane, she wanted to at least weaken the plane so the Phyrexians can easily annex it during another invasion. She managed to revive Ertai who was still loyal to the Phyrexians and before the invasion, an emissary for New Argive named Stenn was compleated into a sleeper agent and was inserted into peace negotiations between the Benalish and Keldons. Many of the Benalish attending the meeting were also sleeper agents as well as most of New Argive's citizens. Though his initial task by his king was to discover and destroy sleeper agents, he was programmed to gain the trust of the planeswalkers at the summit and to report the location of the Sylex to Sheoldred. After splitting up from his allies once the Phyrexians attacked the summit, Ajani Goldmane was compleated and installed in the New Coalition as Sheoldred's personal spy.

Sheoldred arrived during the final battle at the Mana Rig while she was attempting to use her new dragon engine body to halt the Rig while also creating a ramp for her troops to climb on. She briefly lost her balance once the Rig became mobile, but she managed to regain control not long after. After Ajani revealed himself as a compleated spy, he stabbed Jaya Ballard with a fatal blow, sent her to the ground below, and destroyed the Sylex. He also sliced at Karn's chest, preventing him from moving. Sheoldred left her new body and crawled her way to a weakened Karn. She removed her mask to reveal her new true face (this face was taken from a flayed Dominarian woman since her old one was seared off while traveling through the Planar Bridge) and was pleased she had the Mana Rig and Karn and knew that Dominaria was vulnerable. Though Jhoira detonated the explosives on the Mana Rig, Sheoldred managed to report back to New Phyrexia about her success and traveled back with Ajani and Karn following her. She was a little that disappointed her new face would be incinerated on her way back. Upon her arrival, Sheoldred's broken body was carried back to the Dross Pits by Tezzeret.

Phyrexia: All Will Be One[]

Sheoldred's Edict

Sheoldred ordering Vraan to kill another Phyrexian

Continuing where Roxith left off, Sheoldred finished the "Flesh Sphere" the Thane promised Kraynox and converted it into the Dross Pits. Though Sheoldred helped Norn advance her plans of conquering the multiverse, she agreed to lend her forces to the red-aligned praetor Urabrask so their combined forces could distract the Machine Orthodoxy while Urabrask's planeswalker allies can use the sylex to destroy Realmbreaker. This was mostly done both as a means to take power from the other Thanes and as a slight against Norn. The Mother of Machines learned about Sheoldred's betrayal and intended to punish her for it.

March of the Machine[]

Ajani about to execute Shoeldred

Sheoldred's execution by Ajani

Sheoldred was dismembered and captured by Atraxa and the compleated planeswalkers Ajani and Lukka. The three presented the fallen praetor as a trophy to Norn and the Whispering One mocks the Grand Cenobite for obfuscating Phyrexia's goals for her own self interest. After Norn denied her claims and suggested Sheoldred was corrupting Phyrexia's purpose, she tried to scream and protest, but was promptly executed by Ajani.

Even after her death, her faction became the Etched Host and worked with the other factions during New Phyrexia's invasion of the multiverse. With her absence, Norn gave control of her forces to the remaining Thanes who competed against each other for their Mother's favor.

Quotes[]

The sooner you join Phyrexia, the sooner you’ll forget your painful rebirth
~ Sheoldred
Pain isn’t a negative stimulus. Pain is a sign of your imperfection.
~ Sheoldred
The Accorders would lament the transformation of their cherished lands, had they lived to see it.
~ Sheoldred
Attrition is the answer. Starve them, and let their despair be their undoing.
~ Sheoldred
Gix failed. I shall not.
~ Sheoldred
Resist if you must. It makes no difference. As with Mirrodin, your world will bow to Phyrexia.
~ Sheoldred

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • Sheoldred's upper and lower halves of her body can separate from each other
  • Shoeldred's name is based on Sheol, the Hebrew word for "grave" of "pit"
  • Sheoldred's thoughts can be found inside astral coffers. Through a series of steps that must be performed perfectly, Sheoldred's memories can be access. If someone fails this task, they will be given a lie or be trapped in the coffers forever.
    • These can either be found in her possession or can be given to both her allies and enemies.
  • Sheoldred was originally going to be the first praetor to been seen outside of New Phyrexia. She was originally going to be sent to the plane of Eldraine before Vorinclex travelled to Kaldheim and would be introduced in card form in the following Eldraine set as the Whispering Witch. Eventually, Eldraine was shrunk to just one set and the Creative team wanted to take a break from an overarching story so Sheoldred was removed from the set and Oko was made the set's main antagonist.
  • While Sheoldred holds the tenuous title of praetor, she is one of seven beings who rules over the Black aligned Phyrexians. The other Thanes are
    • Geth, Lord of the Vault
    • Azax-Azog, the Demon Thane
    • Roxith, Thane of Rot
    • Kraynox, the Deep Thane
    • Vraan, Thane of Blood
    • Thrissik, the Withering Thane

Navigation[]

           Magic-The-Gathering-logo-800x279 Villains

Planeswalkers
Nicol Bolas | Urza | Ashiok | Azor | Dovin Baan | Domri Rade | Liliana Vess | Nahiri | Ob Nixilis | Oko | Tezzeret | Tibalt | Vraska | Xenagos | Lukka | Ravidel | Tevesh Szat | Geyadrone Dihada | Leshrac | Sifa Grent | Tamiyo | Ajani Goldmane | Nissa Revane | Jace Beleren | Baltrice |

Phyrexians
Phyrexians | Yawgmoth | Mishra | Gix | K'rrik | Volrath | Crovax | Ertai | Tsabo Tavoc | Elesh Norn | Jin-Gitaxias | Sheoldred | Vorinclex | Geth (Magic: the Gathering) | Roxith | Azax-Azog | Kraynox | Thrissik | Vraan | Ezuri | Atraxa |

Multiversal Threats
Eldrazi | Slivers | Marit Lage | Sengir |

Villains by Plane
Dominaria
Lim-Dûl | Mairsil | Kaervek | Laquatus | Karona | The Cabal | Heidar | Weaver King | Rona | Society of Mishra |

Mirrodin/New Phyrexia
Memnarch

Kamigawa
Takeshi Konda

Ravnica
Oba | Szadek | Lazav | House Dimir | Rakdos | Cult of Rakdos | Momir Vig | Savra | Svogthir | Augustin IV | Orzhov Syndicate | Zomaj Hauc | Mazirek |

Lorwyn/Shadowmoor
Oona | Nath | Gaddock Teeg |

Alara
Malfegor | Marisi | Rakka Mar | Order of the Skyward Eye | Gwafa Hazid | Seekers of Carmot |

Zendikar
Anowan | Kalitas |

Innistrad
Gisa and Geralf | Avacyn | Griselbrand | Skirsdag | Olivia Voldaren | Tovolar | Ormendahl | Henrika Domnathi |

Theros
Heliod | Erebos | Phenax | Mogis |

Tarkir
Zurgo | Sidisi | Tasigur |

Kaladesh
Baral

Amonkhet
Gods of Destruction | Bontu | Razaketh | Eternals |

Ixalan
Kumena | Vona |

Kaldheim
Varragoth

Ikoria
Kudro

Arcavios
Extus Narr

Unknown
Kothophed

Advertisement